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Jan- 2020 -29 January
British Airways gets flighty and Starbucks smells the coffee over coronavirus
The business response to the coronavirus situation, which appears to be developing into a serious crisis, continues apace today. British Airways today announced that it was suspending all flights between the UK and Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originally broke out. In a statement it said: “We have…
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28 January
Coronavirus dampens markets but boosts mask producers
Some years ago Bill Gates was asked in an interview what future scenario it was that kept him awake at night. To the surprise of the interviewer, he did not say climate change, or financial collapse, or nuclear war. He said he most afraid of the next major pandemic, in…
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28 January
How ‘Ostrich Shops’ are blighting the high street
The state of the high street isn’t to blame for the closure of shops and growing number of UK retailers entering into Company Voluntary Administration (CVA) schemes. It’s a trend of ‘Ostrich Shops’ which is killing high street retail. It’s all too easy to read about struggling high street shops.…
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24 January
Why retailers need to take sonic branding seriously
Retail is undergoing something of a paradigm shift. This is a sector that faces unprecedented challenges as it adapts to the ever-changing shopping habits of consumers. Last week’s ONS data revealed that UK retail sales fell in December by 0.6%, making it the fifth consecutive month in which retail sales…
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23 January
Asos bounces back from tricky period
Back in July last year Retail Sector reported that Asos was having problems. It had issued a profit warning, suggesting profits were likely to be about one-third of what was originally anticipated. It was an interesting moment in the retail world, because the narrative for the whole of the last…
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22 January
Ted Baker hanging by a thread amid £58m balance sheet black hole
If you have shares in Ted Baker, you are probably not having a good morning. The price has tanked by almost 7% after news broke that the fashion brand has found a £58m black hole in its accounts. There’s being a few hundred thousand or a few million short, but…
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22 January
The smart grocer: How food retailers can capitalise on AI’s potential
The grocery sector is preparing for a period of unprecedented disruption as food retailers battle to discover new sources of value for consumers. Focusing on the fundamental aims of improving customer service, loyalty and integration of digital and real-life experience, retailers are seeking out ways to better understand shoppers’ buying…
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21 January
Global CEOs and the IMF reckon the UK is about to have a good year
It’s not often there is some incontrovertibly positive news about the economy, but today we’ve had some. Audit and business advisory firm PwC has polled 1,600 chief executives, and found that they think the UK is the fourth most important target in the world for companies looking to make investments.…
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20 January
The rise of CBD and what it means for retail
Rewind two or three years and CBD wasn’t even on the radar of the UK retail sector; now it’s a £300m industry. To date over 6 million adults have put CBD to the test and the industry shows no signs of slowing down. Given the size of the market in…
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17 January
The trillion-dollar club has gained Google as a member
Remember at school when teachers used to explain how one million was an essentially incomprehensibly large number? I recall one of mine showing the number represented on a huge rolled out piece of paper as wide and long as a carpet, with precisely one million individual dots. I was about…
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